Just watched a video of people looking for their kids outside of the school. You could hear some woman screaming her son's name in the background. As a new dad, that hit me right in the Parent. Going home to hold my boy at lunch.

Hey Farkers - I've been following these threads since yesterday and want to say thanks; this place is awesome for breaking news links, insight from locals being affected, actual education around issues contributing to what's happening, and the huge majority of the community coming together in compassion. Shadow Blasko and others - glad you're here and thanks for the helpful info.

My link contribution: www.tornadopaths.org; found it yesterday, it maps out everywhere in the US that's seen a tornado in the past 48 hrs; you can search for zip codes and 'today in history;' as far as I can make out, the yellow icons are ones that actually touched down, and white is either that or less severe (Shadow, you know?).

Heart goes out to all in the storm's path, and impressed as hell as always with how people come together after disaster.

If you live in a tornado or hurricane prone area, and don't have a home/school constructed like this:

http://www.monolithic.com/

Then I have no sympathy for you.

That's hilarious. I suppose the entire Eastern coast of the USA needs to adopt your little hobbit homes before you are willing to shed a tear if they die. You are a very wise person, said no one ever.

Not my company.

and you're right, the entire east coast needs to have a strong infrastructure.

You'll be crying on the doorstep of those hobbit homes during/after a Cat 5 or F5

BTW, you're part of the problem.

Where do you live at that is immune to natural disasters?

It's not about living in a location that is devoid of natural disaster.It's about being PREPARED for the disasters in your area.dumbass

So how do you prepare a city for an F5 tornado, a major 9.0 earthquake or Major Tsunami hitting the East Coast? An asteroid hitting you? How do you prepare for massive California wildfires? Are you going to put a big ass sprinkler system over all of their woods? Let's hear your thoughts on how to prepare for those events, and make it economically feasible. I'm betting you still haven't figured out how to solve the homeless situation in your neighborhood.

You guys really are newbsF5 Tornado: Already posted a link on one (of many) solutions9.0: earthquake: same link, don't build on a cliff.Wildfires: same building, also, clear trees a MINIMUM of 50' from your home.I'll just laugh at your asteroid comment. (points) HAha!

So I'm supposed to cure the homeless problem before I make a strong home? interdesting.jpg

Great! You figured out the solution to nature! Now you can go pay for it. Didn't realize I was talking to a genius. My apologies.

Well I use Mac/Linux...:Just watched a video of people looking for their kids outside of the school. You could hear some woman screaming her son's name in the background. As a new dad, that hit me right in the Parent. Going home to hold my boy at lunch.

Newb? My childhood home was destroyed by Hurricane Opal back in like 95. The house stayed, but there's not much anyone could have done about the 5 feet of storm surge that came through the house. I suppose a smart person like you would have never built near a body of water, of course. You are smart and safe from nature.

It shows a lack of appreciation for the danger. It's like that guy who took video of that fertilizer plant explosion. Somewhere on the other side there's a memory card of a couple of people who did the exact same thing but aren't around to post it.

A quote from Farker Slappy McLongstocking a few days ago in the "racist teen wears confederate flag t-shirt" thread:"just hope the storms kill as many as possible so there wont be so many stupid people."/in the words of the immortal Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does."

TanSau:Would I build in an area known for storm surge, or on a flood plane? Goodness no.That would be idiotic.

Having experienced such an event, you'd think that you would respect nature and build in a location and a way to prevent common and predictable home destruction.

An ounce of prevention....

As someone who lives in a coastal town, whose husband is contracted to be here for another 3 years because people here need doctors and are short on them, where every part of town is susceptible to the possibility of a storm surge, I hope you never have to find out how idiotic your statement really is.

I know I've singled you out, but the incessant posts in all three threads that are accusatory of people for being stupid to not be prepared enough for disaster is ignorant and infuriating on an aneurism-inducing level. No one, no matter where they live or what they do to prepare is safe from disaster. Enough with the blame game. This is a time for empathy of those who have lost everything through no fault of their own, and nothing else.

megalynn44:Well I use Mac/Linux...: Just watched a video of people looking for their kids outside of the school. You could hear some woman screaming her son's name in the background. As a new dad, that hit me right in the Parent. Going home to hold my boy at lunch.

PowerSlacker:megalynn44: I wish I had thought to share this link yesterday, it's always highly useful in weather situation.

http://hint.fm/wind/

North Texas really sucks today.

/awesome site

When that low pushes eastward when things ramp up... SEOK, North Texas, NE Arkansas, esp. Texarkana area could see some big numbers..... hoping today isn't as scary as yesterday (although really, it was one isolated large tornado that happened to be in Moore, and many smaller tornadoes)

Random Name Generator:PowerSlacker: megalynn44: I wish I had thought to share this link yesterday, it's always highly useful in weather situation.

http://hint.fm/wind/

North Texas really sucks today.

/awesome site

When that low pushes eastward when things ramp up... SEOK, North Texas, NE Arkansas, esp. Texarkana area could see some big numbers..... hoping today isn't as scary as yesterday (although really, it was one isolated large tornado that happened to be in Moore, and many smaller tornadoes)

Also, Texarkana is the national headquarters of the American Baptist Association...

TanSau:Having experienced such an event, you'd think that you would respect nature and build in a location and a way to prevent common and predictable home destruction.

I told you, I'm a renter. Do you think people who have leases deserve to die? Be honest now. You're pretty funny thinking you're smart while everyone with an IQ over 80 is laughing at you, so I'm curious to hear more of your delusional ravings that you consider "intelligence."

megalynn44:PowerSlacker: megalynn44: I wish I had thought to share this link yesterday, it's always highly useful in weather situation.

http://hint.fm/wind/

North Texas really sucks today.

/awesome site

Yeah, the wind is getting very spinny west of Dallas.

[Deep breath]

Guys, I don't wanna rain on anyones parade here, but http://hint.fm/wind/ is not generated from actual surface readings... or any real-time readings at all.

It is based on a surface wind forecast map from the National Digital Forecast Database. It is not live. It's not even real readings. It's an (hour by hour) forecast weather map, turned into an art project.

It does not take into account individual storms (other than massive storms, like hurricanes or general low pressure areas). It's just a REALLY DAMN COOL artistic layer of a forecast map.

Please don't use it for anything other than "wow, thats cool"... and "it looks like it will be windy in our area, lets try to fly a kite"

/Nothing against them.. I really like it.. but it is not real time or actual observed winds.

ds_4815:PowerSlacker: WippitGuud: Everything within 100 miles or more of Dallas is under a Tornado Watch right now

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/

shiat is definitely real. They used two exclamation points in the headline:

Tornado Watch for All of North and Central Texas Until 7 PM!!

I find the Plains-state NWS offices tend to put a lot of exclamations on their main page alerts. (Not that it's any less genuinely dangerous, mind.)

Easily the most panicked NWS bulletin in history (and necessarily so) was for Katrina.

Nerd info for the moment: Dallas-area CAPE values are approaching 3000 J/kg in the latest soundings, and storm-relative helicity is around 250 m2/s2.

That Katrina bulletin had its own Fark thread... And was the first of (maybe 20?) Katrina real-time threads

Hey, if you don't mind, Once again I can't get data to load on GR3... (I think its my laptop), how are upper midwest (I'm in Columbus) values looking at the moment. I have not been able to pull CAPE data since before noon.

Guys, I don't wanna rain on anyones parade here, but http://hint.fm/wind/ is not generated from actual surface readings... or any real-time readings at all.

It is based on a surface wind forecast map from the National Digital Forecast Database. It is not live. It's not even real readings. It's an (hour by hour) forecast weather map, turned into an art project.

It does not take into account individual storms (other than massive storms, like hurricanes or general low pressure areas). It's just a REALLY DAMN COOL artistic layer of a forecast map.

Please don't use it for anything other than "wow, thats cool"... and "it looks like it will be windy in our area, lets try to fly a kite"

/Nothing against them.. I really like it.. but it is not real time or actual observed winds.

Dammit... just got done writing my post saying this same thing, only less eloquently. Heck, I've never seen top speed exceed 35 mph, and you could pretty much guess that's bull.

nukeim:Medic Zero: thisisyourbrainonFark: dumbandilikeit: They had about 20-30mins of warnings, but not much you can do when faced with a storm of that size.

Obvious questions will be whether Plaza Towers and other buildings had underground storm shelters and whether building codes mandate them. Assume they will be now. But if the storm hit as quick as you say, mandatory shelters don't mean jack if you can't get to them.As another farker said, some of these suburbs look like Dresden times 10.

Early reports had the kids sheltering in a central hallway.

How any building built in Oklahoma can be made out of anything less than concrete and lack a shelter I have no idea. Might as well build on a flood plain.

That school probably was concrete. But like was said (and linked, with a video) above...You throw THAT much crap, THAT hard, at just about any structure, it's going to fail. How thick does a wall need to be to stop an airborne minivan? Pretty much underground is the only safe way to do this, but not a basement, as 1) there aren't many basements in OK due to groundwater or something like that...Houses just aren't built with them and 2) You going to make an underground storm shelter big enough for a thousand kids in EVERY school?

I hope so...But I won't hold my breath.

Superintendent for my local school district just sent this by email:

"In light of the recent tragedy in Moore, we found it appropriate to communicate with you about our school facilities.The two new elementary schools were designed with pupil safety in mind. Each school has integrated reinforced concrete 'tube' hallways with drop down steel doors to seal these spaces. There are five such areas at the new Highland Park and two larger areas on the first floor at the new Will Rogers. We have taken the design elements of a FEMA safe room and incorporated them into a useful school building with room for 1200 inhabitants as per the following:1. Specified hallway spaces with 8" reinforced concrete walls2. 12" reinforced concrete roof deck3. 30" reinforced concrete foundation4. Hurricane resistant steel doors on each end of these spaces (built to withstand hurricane wind forces over 200 mph)"

She goes on to say that the older schools are already being reviewed by engineers for their safety features.